Report on Kerry from The Hill

This article really got to me. So much in fact I blasted an e-mail off to the DNC. I never gave to the DNC before 2004 and the reason I gave then was because of one person John Kerry.

When will these INSIDERS learn to SHUT UP, they are what are hurting this party the most. :mad: :mad: :mad:

That said, the usual backbiting with-friends-like-these comments. Who ARE these people? A fundraiser for Kerry actually asked for his money back? Pathetic.

But in the end, all this stuff reminds me of press reports circa November 2003. No one with a pen appears to have the remotest idea of how Kerry is really doing.

Nobody knows anything! This is completely true! This is the invisible primary and that means that you try to make a case for yourself and survive until the time comes to do more. Kerry already has staff on retainer. Jayzus, Mary and & Joseph! This is amazing news. Wow! Geez, this is great.

Remember the TayTay motto: Just keep swimming, Just keep swimming. Time will take care of everything else.

There will be more news at some point that will actually be news for yuhz, but it is not yet time.

(Yuhz = youse guys = y'all)

goddamned funny, isn't it? A politician who is known to enjoy flying under the radar flies under the radar. Everyone takes note of it, and in the same breath dismisses him. These people are breathtakingly stupid.

but now he has a better tool for flying under the radar - his list, except whenever he uses it he ISN"T flying under the radar. Millions of people get the email and it gets posted everywhere - a mini echo chamber.

What's cool is he is experimenting with how to handle it - that he could get the number of military hardship stories sent to him overnight and that he and his staff used them so well is cool. Sending the video on values, before his amazing Senate speech (ignored by the media), right before the Frist RW "Justice" Sunday - had to have given many Democrats answers to counter the REPs in a timely way.

This was one of the first acknowledgments I've seen for what he's doing. (I wouldn't say it elsewhere, but it's miles beyond using email as a replacement for snail mail for fund raising.) Even if as time goes on, Kerry decides to simply be an outstanding Senator, what he learned last year and how he (and his people) have learned to communicate with people without controlling the media, would be a huge gift to whomever gets the nomination. (Although I don't think all of them could connect this way as well as he does - for an aloof guy personal letters suit him unusually well.)

the written word. I always marvel at how his emails sound just like him talking.

He must be just delighted by the responsiveness of the people on his list. I always love getting his emails, and carpers on DU and such aside, I don't get the feeling we're alone in that.

Aside from support for him personally, it's a great empowerment tool to keep dems from drifting off for a few years till the next big push comes. People are still upset and angry about *'s agenda, about the election, about the war. Kerry is way ahead of everyone else in thinking of ways to involve his supporters beyond just signing petitions.

especially as he did in rallies where he somehow managed to sound like he was speaking from his heart trying to really reach everyone listening. I still don't know why I felt this, but others have said the same thing.

In addition to keeping people from drifting off, he seems to be trying to get them to positively engage - maybe as an alternative to the the more negative ways to engage. (ie the anti-Bush activities rather than pro-military families, pro-kids heath insurance, pro-environment, pro social security) It's almost a re-do of when he urged the anti-war people to stay within the system in 1971.

Especially when they want to call the Democrats obstructionists, having a list of positive goals has to be a good thing, especially as we can point to them AND say yes, these other things are bad things and it's as important to block them.

dictating the letter to a secretary, who takes it down just as he is saying it. So it is him just talking, and that's why it sounds like it. And of course it comes out eloquently. :)

:)

And we know how THAT turned out. Heh, heh, heh.

I'll bet he does have that zip drive in his pocket, too. At one time he was named one of the twelve most tech-saavy members of Congress by Business Week magazine, and the only senator to make the list. (A Call to Service, page 91)

As for Cari, maybe he's mad because he was passed over for a job working for Kerry? I wouldn't worry: it's not Washington insiders who get to pick the nominee, it's us! I'm proud of what he's doing now--very smart. So often he's so ahead of the curve that ordinary minds don't get it. Crazy like a fox!

last year to the World SciFi Convention in Boston. (We had a nice NASA exhibit there and stuff.) Kerry sent a nice letter welcoming the Con to Boston and supporting it and the idea of science ED and such.

He is on:

Commerce, Science and Transportation
Sub-Commitee on Oceans, Fisheries, and the Environment
Sub-Committee on Communications
Sub-Committee on Transportation

Science, Science, Science
Serves him right for having all those colleges in his home state, like MIT.



Science and jumping jacks at MIT. Go together like oil and hair spray, right?

he looks good in that picture...

Sorry! What were you talking about again? :evilgrin:

Seeing him in committee meetings and on the Senate floor lately--he has a LOT of economic expertise that didn't necessarily come out during the campaign. Peoples' eyes would have glazed over, anyway. But when I read or hear how much he knows about economics on top of everything else--what can I say? He's da man!

During the campaign, he did talk about economics such as when he explained the non-obvious connection between making companies more competitive and solving the health care problem. Or when he argued that supporting development of technology as a way to create jobs.

I think what surprised me in the Senate was that although he was super smart during the campaign explaining the big picture of his plans, he is every bit as comfortable arguing or questioning the arcane little details of things like CAFTA. Kerry was blessed with so much eloquence and intelligence, that he could coast on that alone (and still be more capable than many other Senators), but it's clear he really works hard to prepare himself on the issues. That he was identified as one of the 12 best people in Congress on technology and the only one in the Senate, probably means that he worked pretty hard to understand fields that are constantly changing. I was also surprised that (until The last month with Bolton and his Senate speech on values) he was so serious and soft spoken. (That I admit was dumb - the Senate is not a rally)

I wonder if many other Senators have such broad fields of expertise.

What were we talking about?

Someone looks good in their Levis, no?

He looks sooooo good in that one. And the poor kids from MIT look a little unclear on the concept of jumping-jacks. (Perhaps the specs were unclear.) Yeah, he does look good in jeans, doesn't he.

I had a point, once, but, yeah that's a great pic. Nice pants! (I am so shallow.)

SEN. JOHN KERRY (D-MASS.)
Newcomer to e-issues, but emerging as the Senate Democrats' most articulate advocate for tech

To which the Globe said on 6/16/00:

Massachusetts' two senators have been at the forefront on Internet issues. Senator Edward M. Kennedy was the first senator to create a Web home page, while Senator John F. Kerry was recently named by Business Week as one of the top 12 tech-savvy lawmakers.

"We've come a long way from the early days when some folks thought that PCs in their offices were just TVs that didn't get C-Span," said Senator Patrick J. Leahy, Democrat of Vermont and cofounder of the congressional Internet Caucus.

I like what Leahy said.

That's really funny.

Leahy is such a Vermonter. I'm a Masshole who lived in Vermont for 8 years, so I have some insight into the state. They appreciate a nice dry sense of humor. Nothing too show-offy.